The Difference Between the Jubilee Year and Sabbath Years

Well, next Sabbath is the Day of Atonement. As they say at Applebee's, come hungry.

Just a reminder that it is for those of us who are healthy, who are blessed with good health, we should refrain from eating and drinking for that 24-hour period of time from sunset on Friday night until sunset at the end of the conclusion of the Day of Atonement. If you are elderly, if you have extenuating health conditions that due to medications or other things that you need some food or you need some water, if you're a mom who's breastfeeding and you need liquid, God certainly understands the intent of the Holy Day is to afflict ourselves, not kill ourselves. So, if again, if you have that kind of a situation due to age or health that you need to take a little bit of water or you can only do that part of the day, God certainly understands. He is the God of mercy and understanding. Of course, for the rest of us, there is an expectation of the Day of Atonement that we would go without food and water for that 24-hour period of time. On the Day of Atonement, I'll be giving a traditional sermon taken from Leviticus 16 on the two goats and the meaning that we understand, a very rich meaning of the Day of Atonement. However, today I would like to talk about something that occurred on the Day of Atonement. Every 49th year on the Day of Atonement, something very significant happened. Trumpets were blown to announce something called the Year of Jubilee. And just what is this year of Jubilee that we find in the Old Testament? Why did it exist? What are the parallels between the Jubilee and the Millennium that's pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles? And what lessons can we learn spiritually from the Year of Jubilee for us today? This is the kind of topic that I would like to cover on this Sabbath, but before we get into the instructions regarding the Jubilee, there were other Sabbath land commands that we need to be familiar with. So we'll begin by going to Leviticus chapter 25 beginning in verse 1.

Again, that's Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 1. And we will begin learning about the Sabbath of the land. All right, Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 1. It says, and the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land. A Sabbath of the Lord you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap. And the key word there is harvest. Nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is the year of rest for the land. So the instruction from God to the nation of Israel is whatever the land produces during this year. Don't harvest it and try to store it up for the future. Don't sow anything. Whatever grows, don't try to harvest it and store it up in the future. He gives more instruction in verse 6, And the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you, for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and your stranger who dwells with you for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land. All its produce shall be for food. So God says you can simply go out into the land and what's growing naturally, you can take it for food. I don't want you to harvest it. Just go out and what your immediate needs are, you're welcome to go, and whatever is growing during that year, you can glean it from the land. And also He says there's something else, Mr. Land Possessor, Mr. Land Owner, that I want you to understand about this. Everyone is entitled to eat the natural food that's on your piece of land, not only or not simply the person who owns the land. So here we see that at the end of every six years, a Sabbath rest was commanded for the land. Crops were not to be sowed, nor the land harvested. It was to rest for one year and be refreshed. And of course, the purpose of this is so the land would not be depleted of its nutrients. If you just take, take, take, take, you know, it's a universal principle, eventually you're going to destroy what you're taking from, you're going to deplete it and ruin it forever. And God said, I just want this top growth to be able to, to be on that land for the seventh year, for the land to rest. And then the next year when you turn that under, that will all become nutrients. That will all give the land the chemicals and that it needs to remain healthy. So it isn't totally depleted. So that's one instruction we see on what was called the Sabbath year, every seventh year. But on top of this, there was something else that occurred every seventh year, and we can read about that in Deuteronomy. So if you'll turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verses 1 through 11, we'll see something else that was to occur in the seventh year. Deuteronomy chapter 15, beginning in verse 1. God instructed at the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release. Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother because it is called the Lord's release. Verse 3 of a foreigner, you may require it, but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother. That means a fellow Israelite.

Except when there may be no poor among you. So this you can continue doing this until there aren't any poor people left. Guess how long that's going to be? Like forever? For the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance. Verse 5, only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you just as he promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. You shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you. In other words, he says you'll have national greatness as a nation. Verse 7, there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of your gates in your land which the Lord your God has given you. You shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother. Verse 8, but you shall open your hand wide to him and be willing to lend him sufficient for his need whatever he needs. He said you've got to be concerned and care about the poor, those who are less fortunate than you are. Then verse 9, the great God who understands the way our minds work, he understands human nature, says beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying the seventh year this year of release is at hand and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing and he cry out to the Lord against you and it becomes sin among you. That would be as if the seventh year were to begin in a month and Mr. Swope asked me for another 20 bucks.

And I thought to myself, hmm, 20 bucks? In 30 days he doesn't have to pay me 20 bucks. I'm not going to give him 20 bucks. God says you got to be careful that in your heart that you don't think that way, that you don't have that attitude where you're counting the minutes and saying what are the odds that that I'm going to get this back if I lend something to my brother or if I give something to my brother. God says that that could become a sin among you because it's selfish, because it's calculating. Verse 10, you shall surely give to him and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him. Meaning you shouldn't do it, because I have to. You should do it because you want to.

You should do it voluntarily and out of joy. Because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land. That may be perhaps the most valid scripture ever written. The poor, every society the human beings have ever had and ruled over always has poor, doesn't it? Because there's never equity. There's never justice in any society. Winston Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of human government ever created except compared to all the others. It's not perfect.

It has a lot of flaws and it has a lot of weak... just like our capitalist system, right? It's a terrible system, but it's the best one man has ever created to create the largest potential for a middle class. It's not perfect, but it's the best man can do. So God is saying here, for the poor will never cease from your land. Therefore I command you saying you shall open your hand wide to your brother to your poor and to your needy in your land. If your brother, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not send him away empty handed. In other words, you've got to be generous. You just don't say, okay, you can go now. God says no, you have to give them a little something to give them time to have a fresh start. Verse 14, you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, from your wine press, from what the Lord your God has blessed you with, you shall give to him. And here's why God says about having concern for the poor, having concern about those who are struggling. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command this thing to you today. God says you have been blessed, even though you were a slave, you have been blessed with wealth and a lot of good things in life and you've been blessed to be a blessing to someone else. God says remember where you came from. Remember your roots. Be thankful for all that God has given you and share that blessing with others. So here are some additional requirements of the seventh year. The first scripture we read in Leviticus 25 was to give the land a Sabbath rest.

The second was to forgive the debt of a fellow Israelite. We were just reading about that here.

And the third was to generously free an indentured servant after a maximum of six years of service. And that's all that you could serve as a servant was six years and then your time was up. The land at rest allowed the poor to gather free crops and to feed their families while they were getting back on their feet after they were released from servitude, released from being a servant. Oftentimes people wonder how could a person become so poor in Israel? How did someone become poor in Israel? Well, since land could not be permanently sold, it had to be returned to the family. You had no other recourse. If you really weren't selling your land, you were leasing your land. God's law said that God owns all. God owns all the land and He gave the land to specific tribes.

So all you were doing is you were taking the land that you inherited from your tribe and you basically were leasing it to someone else. You had no right to sell it forever. They had no right to own it or buy it forever. So the only recourse of a Hebrew that a Hebrew had for borrowing money was to sell his or her labor, being a laborer for up to six years. Now what happened if you became ill?

Or you were a laborer and you broke your arm or broke your leg and you were unable to be a laborer.

You were in serious trouble. There was no government safety net. A person had to rely on their family or friends to help them in times of need. And when these resources ran out, becoming a servant to someone else was your only option to have an income. I'll serve for you for a certain amount of money for a maximum of six years, depending on when the seventh year would come up. And on the other hand, if you owed that person money, if that was the person you owed debt to, you could work for them to work off that debt.

But once you gave up your land, you had no other recourse but to be a laborer. And you were kind of at the mercy of this system. Now God had a lot of laws to protect those who were servants, especially Israelite servants within the society. You did not own them, lock, stock, and barrel. You could not beat them. You could not abuse them. It was much closer to an employer-employee relationship today than it was when we think of slavery in colonial America, which of course was terrible and certainly unbiblical in the way that it was directed and used to manipulate human beings.

So a person had to rely on their family or friends in time of need. And once that ran out and people couldn't help you, the only option you have was to sell your services as a laborer to someone else. These Sabbath instructions were compassionate ways to treat the poor and help them to rise above poverty, but it was limited in what it could do to help. Israel was an agricultural land and wealth was generated by doing really one thing. If you wanted to build wealth, it was generated by only one thing and that was possessing land.

On land, you could grow crops. You could not only feed yourself, you could sell those crops to someone else to make an income. If you had a great year, you could store those crops and provide security for your family or you could sell the excess, but wealth was generated by possessing land. Again, on land, you could grow crops, you could raise livestock. Without the possession of land, your ability to provide for your needs was limited to that of being a laborer.

And God understood that that can be a struggle for many people. So God, in his wisdom and in his mercy, he decided to do something about it. Since all land belongs to God, he divided it to the tribes of Israel. He designed a way to rebalance the economy. He designed a way to give people who were really living in poverty a chance to wipe the slate clean and to begin over again. I did read a few articles that implied that the modern concept of bankruptcy in our Western world originally came from these Sabbath and sabbatical concepts of the forgiveness of debt.

And that was the roots of our Western ability to file for bankruptcy, meaning you wipe the slate clean, you get a fresh start, you get to start all over again. That is a concept that is rooted in scriptures. Now let's go back to Leviticus 25. We saw the requirements of the sabbatical year, every seventh year. Now we're going to see that God adds something else on top of that that gives the poorest person the ability to rise above poverty and to have a new life.

And if you think about that, isn't that kind of the American dream? People from all over the world of different colors and religions and ethnicity were able to come to the United States with nothing. In most cases, our ancestors came here with pocket change, with nothing, and they were able to rebuild their lives and make their lives better for their families. That's really the American dream. Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 8, and you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you 49 years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month on the day of atonement.

You shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And this phrase here that's called the trumpet of the Jubilee in Hebrew is shofar t'yuwa, which means a trumpet blast of joy.

So you'll blow this trumpet and it had to occur throughout all the land of Israel. It was joyful.

Something happening, a once in a lifetime opportunity is going to occur. If you think about the average life expectancy, you know, most people at that time, well, I don't know how long they lived, but I do know in about the year 1900, which was pretty sophisticated in our times, compared to ancient times, the average life expectancy of an American male in the year 1900 was 50 years old, which means Mr. Thomas would already be on the wrong side of the grass.

So I don't believe their life expectancy would have been that much better when you consider the infant mortality and the other diseases that they would be susceptible to in that society, for something to occur once every 50 years was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Verse 10, and you shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. Now, that's in addition to what we read about the other seven years. That 50th year shall be a Jubilee to you. In it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes for your untended vine, for it as a Jubilee it shall be holy to you, and you shall eat its produce from the field. So again, like the earlier command, the idea isn't for you to go out and sow crops that year, or to literally harvest crops. Just go out every day and take what you need for the next day or two. Naturally, just walk along the fields and take what you need at that immediate point in time. Verse 13, in this year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. So again, this was a significant event. Do you know what the Liberty Bell, the American Liberty Bell, says on it in there in Philadelphia? It's got a crack in it, a bad crack. It says on it, quote, proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. That's taken from Leviticus chapter 25. So even our founding fathers knew that they were starting a nation that was something special, that it was a nation that would guarantee and provide liberty for its inhabitants. It was intended to be a nation founded on biblical precepts and principles and a deep respect and acknowledgement of God. How sad we've fallen from the original concepts of those founders. How sad it is. You know, the verses we read tell us there were three important events that occurred during the year of Jubilee, and we'll discuss them today in a little bit of detail. Here are the three events. First of all, personal liberty. You could go home. You were to go back to your inheritance and your family community. And after a period of time, we Americans are very scattered people. Many of us have children that live in different parts of the state or different states or moms and dads or relatives that live all over the place. So we understand that. But the beauty about the Jubilee was that everyone was to go home. It was like one big family reunion for a year. Go and spend time together. Reconnect with your loved ones.

The second event was a restitution of property. Any land that you sold off to pay debts to use for collateral was to be returned. It had to go back to your tribe, to your people, to the possession of your people, even though you had sold it. And the third thing was the significant event. It was a year of simplicity. This was a rare opportunity to reduce your labors because you're not sowing and reaping, which took a lot of labor in ancient times. You reduce your labors, you reconnect with family, and you get back to basics. You take a year and focus on the things that are really important in life. And again, we will discuss these three events in greater detail through the rest of the sermon here. Let's now pick it up in verse 14.

And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor.

And according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you. According to the multitude of years, you shall increase its price. And according to the fewer number of years, you will diminish its price, for he sells to you according to the number of years of the crops. From a legal point of view, the Jubilee year effectively banned the sale of land as fee simple, and instead it could only be leased for a maximum of 50 years. So the biblical regulations here specify that the price of the land had to be proportional to how many years remained before there was the next Jubilee.

What that means is that the land was cheaper the closer it was to the Jubilee, and it was more expensive if the Jubilee had just occurred a year or two ago, because the one who possessed that land, who got the lease, would have more opportunity to make money from it. Again, that just shows God's fairness, the proportion in which he instructed that to be done. And we have to remember that the Bible argues that the Jubilee existed because all land is owned by Yahweh, and everyone who lives in this earth, you and I, are just current occupiers. We are aliens. We are strangers in this land called earth, and therefore we have no right to sell the land. We could only lease it. That was the message behind those instructions. Verse 17, therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. So you shall observe my statutes, and keep my judgments, and perform them, and you will dwell in the land in safety. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. So God says, don't oppress one another. Don't try to take advantage of one another. Don't shaft another person to try to get a better deal, and take advantage of them. He says, if you do what's right, God says, I'll give you plenty of food. You'll eat until you can't eat anymore. You won't have to worry about somebody coming in and conquering your nation. I will just bless you in every way if you respect these instructions. So God tells the Israelites that obedience is important, and we certainly know that.

The context of this next verse goes back to the seventh year land rest. The instructions that were in verses 1 through 7. So when we get to verse 20, we have to realize that the context is going back to verses 1 through 7, and we're going to see how God provides a special unique promise. Verse 20, And if you say, What shall we eat the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?

Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years, and you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat the old produce until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat the old harvest. Now let's ask a simple question. If it was not the year of a jubilee, if it were just the typical seventh year, why would God provide for three years of produce every sixth year, especially when you were only skipping the seventh year, and you were planting again in the eighth year? You don't need three years provision if you're just skipping one year, and you're planting again the next spring harvest? Well, the reason God instructed this was to make provision for that unique seventh year, which was the 49th year, 7, 7s, or 49, and what would follow it, because what God said required faith and confidence in his power. Since the 49th year was a sabbatical year, 7, 7s, it was a sabbatical year, it was required to be left fallow, and also the 50th year was the year of jubilee. The land also had to remain fallow, so that means that there were no new crops available for two full years, the year of the jubilee. The year before, which was the 49th year, the year as a jubilee, two years in a row in which you planted no crops.

Plus, you needed a little time to plant for the next harvest season. This created a much greater risk of starvation overall, going two years without planting any crops. So God was asking them to have faith that he could provide them three years of produce to get them through the two straight years of the land resting when it happened to be the 49th year, followed by the 50th year or the year of jubilee. And in ancient times, that required incredible faith not to plant a crop for two years. And that was God's test. God wanted to see if they were willing to take him up on his offer. He wanted to see if they were willing to rely and trust on their God.

Verse 23, So it says here in this scripture that if one sold their family land to a buyer, even before the jubilee, they've leased it, they've sold it, it might be many, many years before the next jubilee, a relative shows up and they can afford to purchase it back, that they have the right to do so. The person who has that lease cannot say no. That's how important the land is to the family. Also, if a person who sold the land comes into enough wealth for some reason that they can repurchase their own land back, they had the right to do so. The owner of that land, the one who possessed the lease could not say no. And that the land's value was to be prorated depending on how close it was to the year of the jubilee. Again, the land being cheaper, the closer it was to the jubilee because there were less opportunities for the owner to have crops and develop wealth from the land. Verse 28, but if he is not able to restore to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of jubilee, and in the jubilee it shall be released. So the most you could ever lease a piece of land was a maximum of 49, 50 years. And he shall return to his possession.

If a man sells a house, now we'll see here, this is a different procedure if it's in a walled city.

If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it's sold.

Within a full year he may redeem it. But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it throughout all his generations. It shall not be released in the jubilee. So here an exception is made between family farmland, on one hand, that we've been reading about, and property in a walled city. If you owned a home in a walled city sitting on a piece of land that obviously was not cultivated because there's a home sitting there, then you were exempt from the requirements of the jubilee. You could buy that home. A person had one year to come back and buy it back from you, and if not, your family could own that home forever. And the differences, of course, is that that was no longer family land.

If you grew up like I did in the heart of the city of Cleveland, I grew up in a double home that was on a typical lot of the city of Cleveland. 30 foot wide by 70 foot deep. How's that for a big yard? The width between the houses in the neighborhood I grew up in were the exact width of a driveway between each house. Enough to drive a car down to the least the park between the houses because most houses didn't have garages. But you could at least get your car off of the street. So the scripture says if you're in a situation in a city that land isn't cultivatable. You can't grow crop.

There's really no wealth there. There's a building sitting on it. He said in that case that is exempt from the jubilee. Now how did observing the year of jubilee provide the message to simplify life in ancient Israel? I remember we went through the church went through a period of time in the 80s where prepare to simplify your life and there were magazine articles written there were sermons given.

Prepare to simplify my life. That was of course before the internet, before smartphones, before we were pulled in 800,000 directions when people at the office can get us 24 seven anytime day or night. It was a novel concept but unfortunately the way of man is to get more and more sophisticated, more and more stressful, and to steal more and more of our private time away from us. That's exactly what happens and God knew, I mean, for all he's the creator, he knew the way that we're designed and wired because of human nature. So how did observing the year of jubilee provide the message to simplify your life? How did that message come across in ancient Israel?

First of all, it was refocus on the family. Everyone who had left their relatives to become a laborer returned to their family. When I was a small child, my grandfather on my mother's side, who emigrated from Sicily, he died as a young man. So the way that my grandmother provided for herself, she owned a number of double homes in Cleveland. She rented most of them out except the half of the one that she lived in and she did quite well actually. She was a widow but she did very well because at that time in the 50s in Cleveland, Cleveland had factory jobs everywhere.

Thousands of men at the time because of our culture and society, thousands of men were coming to Cleveland from Kentucky and West Virginia and Tennessee to fill these factory jobs that were available. And usually what happened with my grandmother, it was very typical because they would tend to be transient. Only the father would come. He'd get the job at the factory. He'd be separated from his family. Usually every Friday night he'd go back to Tennessee. Sunday night he'd come back to all. I'd go back to his factory job in Monday morning and he would work like a dog until he saved enough money to bring his whole family up to Cleveland with him. And my grandmother provided boarding rooms for these individuals who all alone were working at the factories five, six days a week trying to provide enough for their families. And they were separated. That had to be hard on their families because they were separated from their families most of the week in order to provide a good job. And God said with the Jubilee year, let's refocus on the family.

Everyone who had left their relatives to go to another tribe or another place in Israel was to come home and have a big family reunion that year. Another way is that it took a lot of resources to reap crops, to harvest the crops, to store the crops. And this was eliminated for two years in a row. It had been eliminated the 49th year, which was the 7th, 7th year, and the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. So there was a lot more time on your hands. Having no debt resulted in less anxiety among the people, particularly those who were poor. But you know what? From God's perspective, it was a win-win. Because God says, well, let's see, the poor person is released from their debt.

That's a good thing. And the wealthy person has to learn how to live on less for a year or two.

That's a good thing, God says. So in God's perspective, it was a win-win. It rebalanced the society. Those who were comfortable in life and thought they had it all suddenly had to learn to do with less. And the people who were in abject poverty and struggling were given a fresh slate to start their lives over again with. And another way that they were reminded to simplify their lives is that this extra time allowed people to think about the important things in life that we take for granted. Because we get in our ruts and we go through the motions. And they certainly went through the motions. Planting time, harvesting time, storing the food, you know, da-da-da-da-da. And God provided this as a time to think about family, think about your life. What are you doing with your life? Think about your career. Think about the lessons. If you're poor, what can you learn from the lessons of the mistakes that you made? You know that, of course, America is a great nation of entrepreneurs. Do you know that most successful business owners failed two or three times before they became successful? They literally went into bankruptcy. It's the lessons they learned by failing one or two times that made them successful. We all know who Henry Ford is, right? We know the Ford Motorcage. Isn't that wonderful? What most people don't know is the first company that he organized, he took all of the stockholders' money and drove the company into bankruptcy.

And they were stuck with all the debt. And what did he do? Well, he reincorporated and started another auto company. America provides you that opportunity to fail and to start again. And that's what God wanted people to do. If you fail, if you make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and then start all over again. Have an opportunity for growth and achievement. And the year of Jubilee allowed that to happen. Putting all the benefits of the Jubilee together, it offered society a chance to balance abuse and corruption. You know, human nature is greedy and it tends to be selfish. It wants to accumulate stuff because we deceive ourselves into thinking that material possessions provide security. And in any society, I don't care what in human history it's been, in any society you will always find individuals who are devious. They may be a minority, but they're still people who are devious and shrewd. And they will take advantage of the uneducated or the downtrodden, to take away everything they have, including their dignity. And in most societies in human history, you will see that if there was at one time a middle class that that middle class shrank, the rich became richer, the poor became poorer. And I hate to say it, but statistics show the same things occurring within the United States at this time, but that's true throughout human history.

And it was God's way to rebalance that trend every 50 years, to wipe the slate clean.

And it taught a very important message as well. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 1. Let's take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 1. It taught something else.

It taught humility. Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 1. Every commandment, which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord your God swore to your fathers, and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you and to know what is in your heart. God's going to put you through experiences and give you opportunities to see if you truly have faith in him. Will, when that 50th year come, will you be humble enough to release the 10 people who owe you debts? Will you be humble enough to say, okay, not a problem?

For all 10 of you, all of your debts are wiped clean. Will you be that kind of a nation? Will you be that kind of a people, God says, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not? So he humbled you and he allowed you to hunger. God says, I allowed you to hunger. So will you have empathy for those who are hungry? Will you always remember your roots?

Remember that there was a time when you had nothing? What did remember what it was like to be hungry? Remember what it was like to first be married and you drove an old junky clunker car and you couldn't afford your home. You rented a home and the only time you ever bought new clothes was during the Feast of Tabernacles. You'd go out and scrape a few dollars together, buy a new shirt or buy a new dress. Do you remember what life was like when you first started out and you had nothing?

God says, when you have something, don't forget your roots. Don't forget where you came from.

He says, and to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you. He allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So God says, and the bottom line is it's not about how much we grow. It's not about wealth. It's not about what we possess. It's about God and his commands and what he teaches us and having that kind of relationship with him. So again, the nation had to trust God and believe in faith that God would provide for them during the time of the Jubilee year that he would carry them through two years that the land would be allowed to rest. The year of Jubilee certainly also pictured a time of peace and rest that will exist in the millennium.

Number 50 is very significant to God. From the days of unleavened bread, it was 50 days that were counted until Pentecost and God forgave his church and gave them the gift of his Holy Spirit.

In a similar way, 50 years were counted until you arrived at the day of atonement in the year of the Jubilee. So the number 50 represents forgiveness. It represents giving, forgiveness of debt, forgiveness of sin, and having that hand wide open and giving. That's what the number 50 represents.

Let's now go to Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. Scripture that Jesus read that many understand is certainly a reference to the millennium and has some very exact phrases used for commandment of the Jubilee year.

Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. Jesus is actually quoting from Isaiah chapter 61. It says, Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he opened the book, he found the place where it was written. And here it is, beginning verse 18.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Now Jesus is taking this a step further. He's talking about sin, but there's certainly the strong thread here of the year of Jubilee and the things that were to be done during the year of Jubilee, particularly stopping oppression and forgiving people who were captive to debt and allowing them to go free. Verse 20, Then he closed the book, he gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all but witness of him and marvel that the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? Now you don't need to turn there, but I'm going to continue reading from Isaiah 61 where Jesus stopped. Because Jesus fulfilled that part of Isaiah 61. There's a part to be fulfilled yet not too far distant in the future. I'll be reading from Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 2. Jesus said to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and then he closed the book. But it continues to say in Isaiah, and the day of vengeance of our God, you see there is coming a time when the nations of this earth are going to be punished. When all nations are going to experience the great tribulation of the day of the Lord, they're going to see some heavenly signs, and there is going to be the vengeance of God upon the nations of this earth because of their sin. But it doesn't stop there. Isaiah continues, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified, and they shall rebuild the old ruins, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolation of many generations. The prophecy about the kingdom of God, the prophecies that we know of on the kingdom of God, were a type within the year of the Jubilee. You were captive, now you're free. You had a debt, you no longer have debt. You were worked to death, now it's a time of rest. So all of those things that were represented in the Jubilee, the year of the Jubilee, are also represented in the millennium. What are some of the messages we can glean from the year of the Jubilee in the 21st century? After all, we don't live at their time. We live in the 21st century. Sometimes people ask me, should I be keeping the year of the Jubilee? And of course the answer is no. The year of Jubilee was for part of the old covenant between God and the nation of Israel in their land.

They sinned, they rebelled, God took them from their land in the captivity, God divorced them as their husband. The old covenant is broken. We live under the new covenant, not the old covenant, which means there are spiritual applications that we take from the year of Jubilee, but we are not required to keep the year of Jubilee. Besides that, it wouldn't work in our modern society anyway.

We have a very few percent of our population that are even in the farming agricultural industry.

It would be virtually impossible in this society today to keep the year of Jubilee. Now, what occurs in the Kingdom of God will excitingly wait and see what God does at that time.

But what are some messages that we can glean from the year of Jubilee for the times that we live, the 21st century? Well, here are some things I'd like to talk about today. First of all, the things that we have in this life, especially our property, is a gift of stewardship given by God. God owns everything, and all physical possessions we have is simply on loan from God.

I mean, that's the truth. When we leave this earth, when we die, you know, we're waiting the resurrection, someone else will live in our house. Even if it's our spouse, when our spouse dies, family will sell it, someone else will live there. The clothes we have, if they don't end up at goodwill, they'll probably end up in an incinerator. But everything that we hold dear that we think is so important in this life, we simply are stewards of. They are on loan from God.

Another thing to think about is in ancient Israel, the land produced wealth and surplus goods, and was the center of the whole economy. In time, an unnatural accumulation of wealth was kept in balance by the Jubilee year and its requirements of freedom and returning the land to the original owners. Because of human nature, wealth creates selfishness and it creates greed in most people.

There's a reason that Jesus said that it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus knew exactly what he's talking about. Matthew 19, he said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's because most rich people, not all, but most are never satisfied. It's like when Mr. Thomas plays Monopoly. He wants boardwalk and he wants park place and he wants to crush you.

That is human nature. He wants to own you. He wants to first take the money that you have, then he wants the barter for the properties that you have left, and he literally wants to devour you because that is human nature. You see, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God because they are never satisfied. It's never enough. You want more and more and more and you just cannot satisfy that need to acquire and to control because it's powerful and power can affect our vanity. It can affect the way that we think. Power gives people in a distorted mindset to think that they're superior. Well, I'm rich. I must be smarter than other people. I'm rich. I must be superior to other people. It warps and distorts your mind, and that's why Jesus said it's so hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Another thing to consider is that since the Jubilee began on the day of atonement, they both picture a time when sin is removed and a restored relationship exists between God and humankind. The Jubilee pictured a time of peace and liberty, just like the millennium does. And both the Jubilee and the millennium have certain characteristics that I'd like to ponder on for a minute. Here's what the Jubilee and the millennium both teach us, that each person is to live free with the opportunity to achieve. No more prejudice, no more bigotry, no more being held back because you're on the wrong side of the tracks, or your parents don't come from wealth, or you have a different ethnic origin, or whatever. All the barriers that our society puts on people today to hold them back is gone, because both the Jubilee and the millennium teach that each person is to live free with the opportunity to achieve and become all that they can possibly be. Both teach that each person is to possess their own land, and that is a blessing from God, whether it was the Jubilee or millennial scriptures about each man sitting under his own vine. Each person is to be personally united to God in obedience and thankfulness. So both the Jubilee and the millennium reflect the fact that mankind is united with its God and obedient. Each person is to be personally united with family in love and togetherness.

The Feaster Tabernacles pictures the time when families are brought together again to worship and to spend time and to love one another, just like was pictured in the year of Jubilee.

Another lesson that we can glean is that God observes our business transactions, and He expects us to conduct our affairs in a godly way, dealing graciously with the less fortunate because we have all been recipients of His grace. So the reason we should treat the less fortunate with kindness and dignity is because of God's grace that we are even alive, that we even draw breath, that we were called into the faith, that we understand the Word of God and have an opportunity to become His children. Now, sadly, there is no record of the Jubilee year ever being observed in the Old Testament. And there are records that the prophets do comment on some Sabbath years of seven being observed, but there is no mention in biblical history, the prophets, even in historians like Josephus, that Israel or Judah ever kept the Sabbath year. It would have required a tremendous amount of faith and humility to do so, and I just don't think they had it within them.

First of all, long before the nation divided, there were always tensions between the northern tribes and Judah, long before the actual civil war produced Rehoboam and Jeroboam and two different kingdoms. So they never had enough unity to, as a nation, as a complete people, observe something as beautiful and as meaningful as the Jubilee year, and it would have required tremendous faith, not the plant crops, for two years in a row. Surely, if they had, I believe the prophets would have mentioned it. No mention whatsoever. Like many of God's instructions, it appears to have been completely ignored by the nation. Now, the good news for us is that we already, because of Jesus Christ, are offered liberty and freedom from slavery. Let's go to Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 1. Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 1.

We don't live under the old covenant, but we do live under the new covenant, and there are always deep and profound spiritual applications of things that God told ancient Israel to do.

And it's a profound truth that we have been given freedom through Christ. Liberty, because of Jesus Christ. We don't need to wait for a sabbatical year. We don't need to wait for a Jubilee year.

We've been given that now. Romans chapter 8, in verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but to the Spirit, meaning you possess God's Holy Spirit. For the law of the Spirit is life in Christ Jesus has made me free. Another word for liberty has made me free from the law of sin and death. So there was a law known as a commandment that said, thou shalt not. Right? And that law said, you should die. You've broken it. But the good news is, is that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus overcame the law of sin of death because of the life that Jesus lived. Let's read that verse 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sin full flesh on the account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Because Jesus Christ lived a perfect and righteous life and he dwells in us through his Holy Spirit, the requirement of the law has been fulfilled in us. Verse 5, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So the scripture says here, Paul reminds the Romans that if our thoughts and attitudes are right, we can experience and celebrate the Jubilee every day in the most important kingdom that you have right now. That is the kingdom that exists between your two ears, your mind. If you understand what Christ did for you and the preciousness of God's wonderful calling right up here, we can be spiritually minded and that results in peace, it says, and in life. A full life and peace of mind, even in the midst of all kinds of stuff going around us and chatter and gossip and all kinds of negative things that surround us. We, if we're spiritually minded, can live a life of peace and a full life. Now let's drop down to verse 18. Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And someday we are going to be immortal. We are going to shut off this corruption and be incorruptible. Verse 19, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. That God created everything physical and everything physical degrades and declines and eventually dies. Verse 21, because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. That kind of liberty that was proclaimed throughout the land on that day of atonement that introduced the year of Jubilee. Liberty throughout the land, and it all begins with the liberty we have because of what Jesus Christ did and has offered us. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit, for we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body. So we're physical, we're growing old, we are slowly fading away, but we long within ourselves, we've grown within ourselves, for the time when we will hear that trumpet blast and our feet will leave this earth and we will meet Jesus Christ in the air and in the twinkling of an eye we will be changed from mortal to immortal and we will be able to come back to earth and rule over the kingdom of God as a servant, as part of the servant army of Jesus Christ. Well, brethren, since Israel went into captivity and broke the old covenant and God divorced them, we are no longer required to observe the physical requirements of the year of Jubilee. We're under the new covenant. You see, brethren, it's not just about land. We're under a new covenant, but we are to inherit all things.

We should respect those things knowing that everything that we have is a gift from God, everything that we will ever be given through eternity, as because of the grace and mercy as a gift of God. The spiritual application of the year of Jubilee is to acknowledge God as the owner of all wealth, to realize our responsibility as stewards of the earth and everything that we have, and to treat the unfortunate with compassion, and treat them with dignity. Let's look forward to a time when the entire world will enjoy the spiritual blessings of the year of Jubilee.